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Apr 15, 2018 at 7:30 PMApr 15, 2018 at 7:30 PM

The Township Council voted earlier this month to approve both a bond ordinance to finance the purchase of the rundown Pemberton-Browns Mills strip mall, as well as a second ordinance authorizing the administration to purchase the property or acquire it through condemnation proceedings.

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP — The township’s government is moving forward with acquiring the Browns Mills Shopping Center, either through a negotiated purchase or condemnation.

The Township Council voted earlier this month to approve both a bond ordinance to finance the purchase of the rundown Pemberton-Browns Mills Road strip mall, as well as a second ordinance authorizing the administration to purchase the property or acquire it through condemnation proceedings.

The second ordinance specified that the administration should spend no more than $920,000 to purchase the property, which has long been targeted for redevelopment by the township.

Both ordinances were approved by 4-0 votes by the council during its April 4 meeting.

The township's moves toward possible condemnation of the site is the latest in a long, and often repetitive saga, surrounding attempts to redevelop the 42,000-square-foot shopping center, which has been mostly vacant since 1996, when its anchor store, Acme, moved to the Pine Grove Shopping Center about a half mile away. Today, the vast majority of its stores are vacant and shuttered.

Mayor David Patriarca and other township officials said the move to obtain the property is in response both to interest from developers, as well as the reduced value of the property, which was previously appraised at over $2 million.

The plan is to try to negotiate the purchase of the property from the mall’s longtime owner Rocco Berardi. If Berardi refuses to sell, the township plans to initiate proceedings in Superior Court to condemn and seize the property through eminent domain.

To condemn, the township would file a complaint in Superior Court requesting to take ownership by right of eminent domain and then compensate Berardi with fair market value for the property. The township’s intent is to either sell the property directly to a developer, or demolish and clear the site to make it more attractive for redevelopment.

The township has taken similar steps toward condemnation before, only to back away from it later. The farthest the governing body went was in 2002, when the council voted to condemn the property, pay Berardi $2.27 million through a bond issue and resell the site to another developer. A Superior Court judge upheld the action early in 2003, but the council dropped the plan because it had no developer lined up to takeover the property.

The council again approved a $2.3 million bond for acquisition of the site in 2013, but never moved forward with purchasing the site or condemning it.

Patriarca said he believes revisiting condemning the shopping center is now in the town’s best interest based on the reduced appraised value and interest from a developer.

“It’s opportunity, that’s what has changed, and you have to act on opportunity,” the mayor said during the April 4 meeting. “We’re taking steps to improve downtown Browns Mills by acting on opportunities.”

Not everyone in town is convinced. Residents Jack Tompkins and Terry Maldonado, who both filed to run in the Republican primary for the right to challenge Patriarca, a Democrat, for the mayor’s office, both spoke against condemnation.

Maldonado said she was against adding to the township’s some $24 million debt to purchase or condemn the property.

“I do believe it’s an eyesore, but my pockets can’t afford the debt from this township anymore,” she said.

Township Administrator Dennis Gonzalez responded that the township could borrow the money to finance the purchase of the shopping center and pay off the loan quickly with proceeds from the sale to a developer without incurring much interest.

Tompkins said he was against the local government “land speculating” and that he was worried the town would lose tax revenue by owning the property.

“Just because it’s an eyesore doesn’t mean we should be looking at eminent domain to take that property over,” Tompkins said. “And we shouldn’t be purchasing it with hopes we’re going to get a developer in. We could be sitting with that property for years and years and years.”

He said he preferred bringing developers to the owner to work to make improvements and redevelop the shopping center.

Township officials said they’ve tried that, but Berardi has refused to invest in improving the property or sell to any interested buyers.

“I’ve never seen a property owner who doesn’t want to take care of their property or improve it, while at the same time also doesn’t want to sell it,” township solicitor Andy Bayer said, adding that the townships is required to enter into negotiations with the owner again before moving forward with condemnation proceedings in Superior Court.

The property is zoned commercial and officials said there is some contaminated soil that would need to be removed.

“It’s something that will have to be done during the construction phase,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t expect it will cost a huge amount of money.”

Patriarca said he’s been in negotiations with a developer but could not specify what new businesses might be brought to the shopping center.

“We all have a wish list of what we’d want to come into the site,” he said. “As long as it’s right for the town and provides a retail service of some sort to a community in need, I think that’s ten times better than what we have now.”

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